Chapter 18: Hello Kitty Battle Suit

It was Stella’s engine that had blown! The moment that boom hit his ears, Derek Su’s vision went black.

With his past racing experience, he immediately knew what it was: an engine blowout. In his entire career, he could count such incidents on one hand, and as both his skill and racing tech advanced, the term had practically vanished from his vocabulary.

His first reaction was embarrassment—but he snapped out of it instantly.

He wasn’t in his old world anymore. He wasn’t driving a race car. He was driving a mecha girl.

“Stella! Stella, are you okay?” Derek Su rushed forward. Her chassis was still sliding, and halfway through the motion her deployed form collapsed on its own. Instinctively, he caught her limp human form in his arms. The remaining momentum flung both of them to the ground, rolling them hard across the pavement.

Even knowing that Stella—who could headbutt concrete tiles into pieces—wouldn’t be hurt by a fall...

He still hugged her tight, shielding her with his own body until they slammed into a guardrail.

“Holy crap, that hurts!”

Derek Su felt like his waist or back had snapped in half. After that intense burst of pain, everything just went numb.

“Master...” Stella opened one exhausted eye, smiling weakly. “I... I won. I’m not a scrap mecha girl...”

“I know you’re not a scrap mecha girl.” Derek Su leaned against the guardrail, face twitching. “But I’m about to be!”

“Master, my butt hurts...”

He knew exactly what she meant—that smack from the hairpin turn had hit Stella hard. But there had been no choice.

He needed to win for MP points. Stella needed to win for her pride. So they’d gone all in together.

“A sore butt’s fine. I’ll rub it for you when we’re home.”

“Master, you’re such a pervert...”

“Besides your butt, what else hurts?” Derek Su rubbed his temples.

Stella touched her chest timidly, frowning. “My chest feels hot... tight... and it really hurts... Master, am I dying?”

“You blew your engine.”

“Blew... blew my engine? What’s that?”

Derek Su: “...”

If she weren’t an injured patient, he would’ve flicked her forehead.

Was she snoring through class whenever other mecha girls were paying attention?!

Engine blowouts were normal for race cars—just swap the engine. But what about a mecha girl?

He’d never installed an Engine Module for Stella. He couldn’t exactly replace her AI Core.

Not that it was his fault. Back when he worked with Jade-786, he’d been genuinely curious.

But every time he tried to examine her more closely, Jade-786 would put on that wounded look and go on about human rights and respect.

And since no one ever educated Derek Su properly about mecha girl mechanics, he only knew the surface level of everything.

“Your mecha girl blew her engine,” Caio Yang said as he walked over with Comet. He checked Stella briefly, then reassured him, “The engine’s bound to the AI Core. Let her rest tonight—she’ll be bouncing back by tomorrow.” He then glanced at Stella’s shoes, the soles nearly worn through. “But you need new tires. Your cornering is great, but you're burning rubber. After every race, change them. You wouldn’t want your mecha running barefoot, would you?”

“Master, why are you explaining anything to this monster?” Comet tugged Caio Yang’s racing suit, glaring at Derek Su. “He used psychic energy and still only tied with you! How the hell do you even drive your mecha, monster?! Unbelievable!”

“Uh, well... world’s most handsome man, do you have a club?” Caio Yang grinned shamelessly. “Our VVC Club needs talent like yours! Join us and Comet and I will totally cover you!”

Comet’s eye twitched. She dragged Caio Yang toward the exit.

“Hey—wait! What if he actually wants to join?!”

“I’m not joining any club that has XC-99!”

“Comet, sometimes you gotta swallow your pride—”

“Swallow your ass! Aren’t you embarrassed?!”

Comet shot Stella one last glance—curled up in Derek Su’s arms—then huffed, “xc-99, you lucked out this time. Next time, I won’t go easy.”

“Wh-who needs you to go easy, you jerk?!”

Stella tried to stand, but Derek Su quickly pushed her back down.

“Calm down. He didn’t blow his engine.”

Hearing that, Stella sat back and just bared her teeth at them, waving her fists.

After a moment, she relaxed and leaned on Derek Su’s shoulder, smiling brightly. “Master, we won!”

“Yeah, we won.” Derek Su stared at the measly 10 MP points, hiding his bitter smile.

Tying for first was still second place to his system.

Only absolute first counted.

With those 10 points, Stella’s Cornering was now 32.5. Forget Knox’s consecutive hairpins—just the professional license test alone required a mecha girl to clear eight consecutive C-curves solo, above 50 speed, no touching barriers. With him driving, she’d clear it. On her own... the odds were grim.

“Master, why are you making that face? Are you upset?” Stella poked his cheek.

“No, my kidneys just hurt...”

“Oh! Stella will massage your kidneys!”

“...No—wait—don’t move—Aagh! That hurts!!”

...

The man’s helicopter arrived quickly, medical staff rushing out.

They lifted Derek Su onto a stretcher, while Stella—after a brief rest—was back to acting totally normal.

“Kid, you’re famous now after taking on VVC’s racers!”

The man beamed at Derek Su. Plenty of racers and mecha girls still hadn’t finished, but he didn’t care. Those street racers were no match for VVC’s Caio Yang and Comet—so they were definitely no match for Stella and the “Most Handsome Man.” The rest of the race wasn’t worth watching.

“I recorded your showdown with Caio Yang. I’m putting it on loop at the Banag track entrance!”

He shook Derek Su’s hand so hard his vision blurred. Then the man grabbed a box from his bodyguard, popped it open, and revealed stacks of cash.

“This is your reward—200,000!”

“Mwahahaha! We’re rich!” Stella cheered.

She didn’t fully understand the amount, but she knew it was ten times more than before.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be 100,000?” Derek Su blinked.

“Oh, Caio Yang said he didn’t win fair and square. He didn’t feel right keeping the money, so he left it for your medical bills.”

The man closed the box, wiping tears dramatically. “Is this the friendship between genius racers? So touching~”

Derek Su: “...”

Well, still good. Two hundred thousand meant he could buy Stella a steering Module and finally fill that missing attribute.

“Kid, you’re supposed to race in the Knox Rally the day after tomorrow, right?” The man suddenly grew serious. “With injuries like this, you can’t compete. So I took the liberty of sending you to the nearest AI Medical Center. The treatment might cost a bit—brace yourself.”

...

Gotta admit, this world was insanely high-tech.

His injuries weren’t fatal, but far from mild. On Earth, he wouldn’t touch a steering wheel for half a year.

But here, the Cyborg Medical Center fixed everything in one hour.

And it cost 500,000.

Impossible for Derek Su to pay. Eventually, he agreed to wear a ridiculous custom racing suit for Knox, which granted him a 500,000 credit waiver.

He’d seen the suit: blinding pink, covered in Hello Kitty drawings, with a big picture of the man’s five-year-old daughter printed on both the chest and back. Beautiful kid—but something about her smile felt oddly frail.

When Derek Su and Stella finally left the medical center, the sky was already turning orange.

He exhaled deeply.

“At least the 200,000 bounty is safe. With the earlier funds, that’s 220,000. Enough to replace your tires and buy a decent steering Module.”

“Whoa!! Module!!” Stella clapped happily. “The happiest mecha girl in the world is about to get her very first Module!!”

But when they arrived at the Module shop...

The owner told them flatly the blue-grade steering Module was sold out.

“Yesterday. An old guy bought the last one.”

He picked his teeth. “Even if you came earlier, it wouldn’t matter. That Module was 300,000. You didn’t have the money anyway.”

“Forget that—your shop’s huge. You don’t restock more than what’s in the display?” Derek Su snapped. Stella nodded furiously beside him. “Exactly! Boss, you should invest in us! We just won the Banag training race—tied with VVC’s Caio Yang!”

“Heh. Think I’m stupid? No way I’m buying that.”

He’d heard of the race, sure. But someone who could match VVC’s Caio Yang wouldn’t look this poor.

Look at this kid—pale, weak, filthy suit.

And his mecha girl? Tiny. Cute, sure, with a generous figure, but otherwise clueless. Still a baby.

“Alright, enough. I’m closing up early. Check out the cheaper Modules or other blue-grade ones. If not buying—scram.”

“Closing this early? You rushing to reincarnate?!” Derek Su yelled as the owner slammed the door.

“Exactly!” Stella echoed. “We really are Banag’s number one!”

Annoyed by the noise, the owner said, “Fine. I heard the first-place mecha, Stella, is a silver luxury sports car. Deploy your chassis—show me.”

Stella immediately tried, face turning red, but nothing happened.

She’d blown her engine—her body hadn’t recovered. Other than deploying, they had no proof.

The man who paid their bills had left for the racing suit fitting without leaving a number.

“We really are!” Stella insisted stubbornly.

The owner rolled his eyes. “Move. I’m going home to watch the Banag replay.”

He shoved past them, hopped on his scooter, and rode away.

Earlier he’d heard the race was amazing but hadn’t had time to watch it.

“You jerk! You’ll regret that!!” Stella shouted after him.

“This is ridiculous!” she stomped. “Master, no one believes the truth in this world!”

“Forget it.” Derek Su patted her head. “We’ll head back. Tomorrow we’ll change your tires and check the next city for a compatible Module.”

“Mm-hmm~”

Derek Su sighed inwardly. Who knew if the next city even had a Module shop? And time was tight.

Stella needed rest tonight. Tomorrow meant tire replacement, Module shopping, and the mecha pilot license exam...

Dark days ahead.

The dusk streets bustled like Earth—cars, pedestrians, street stalls everywhere.

Stella suddenly tugged on his sleeve, pointing at a food cart. “Master, I want cotton candy!”

“Okay, I’ll get it.”

“Master, I want popcorn too!”

“No problem.”

Derek Su watched the little girl ahead, one hand holding cotton candy, the other popcorn, turning back every few steps with a sunny smile.

Suddenly, the future didn’t seem so dark.

“Derek Su, Derek Su, she’s a mecha girl...”
He shoved his hands in his pockets, looking up at the clouds, reminding himself again:

“She’s not a race car.”